huh? if you knew me you would be laughing now. the mall and i are not
exactly compatible and noise pollution is a major pet peeve. anyway, i
guess I understand your thoughts here but i can imagine plenty of
applications (mine included) where this type of set up makes plenty of
sense.

1. In a small flat (1200 sq/ft) like my own having a single source
piped into multiple locations lets me listen to tunes as walk from room
to room, something I do everyday with great joy.
2. each room can be turned off with the volume control, no one is
forced to listen to anything (sort of*).
3. pulling wires, a distro hub and VCs were cheaper than buying
equivalent and redundant stereos in even half the rooms and is a low
end kind of future proofing.
4. it reduces clutter and in my opinion looks cool
5. it can be upgraded to a multisource multi zone system which would
let people listen to different audio content in different rooms. This
is expensive from what i gather.
6. having a localized audio source allows for nice integration into
home automation schemes (which in my opinion is more head scratching as
in "Why do people do this?")
7. adds value to the flats resale

Just a few thoughts. Thanks for sharing.